European Kestrel

Gallery: AvianPosted January 31, 2011185 views24 comments

I found this bird three weeks ago in Switzerland. He perched to the opposite bank of the river only for a moment.
This is my first shot to this beautiful species.

40D 700mm
f7,1 1/400
ISO 400
tripod
12% of the original.

Thanks for viewing.
C&C are very welcome.

Comments

24 comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on January 31, 2011 at 9:56 AM

Monica, this is just beautiful. The larger version is stunning in its clarity. Wonderful light and background, wonderful perch and pose. Beautiful.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Mauro Pasquero on January 31, 2011 at 10:00 AM

Wow, Monica !!! Beautiful capture. Very good exposure and fine detail. Great complementary BG.

Mauro

Registered on January 21, 2010, 650 Posts, 2500 Comments

Comment posted by Fabio Giarrizzo on January 31, 2011 at 10:12 AM

Great capture- Beautiful light and BG, good details on larger version- Brava, Fabio

Registered on December 3, 2010, 90 Posts, 1614 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on January 31, 2011 at 10:27 AM

Nice light and head turn Monica. Love the colors throughout and your composition works well for me.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Marquart on January 31, 2011 at 10:32 AM

Nice pose, perch, and I really like the background. I'm wondering if you sharpened the entire image or just the bird.

Registered on October 24, 2009, 126 Posts, 799 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on January 31, 2011 at 10:36 AM

Thanks everybody for the comments.
Gary,I sharpened slightly only the bird and applied NR on the background.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on January 31, 2011 at 11:53 AM

This is a sweet comp Monica. Love the light and colors. Nice head turn and a great BG. The large crop is showing in the larger version. I might play around with some NR to see if it can be lessened a bit. Still a great look at this awesome bird.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Darren Colello on January 31, 2011 at 12:19 PM

Monica, this is a real beauty. The bg is lovely and it enhances the raptor very well. Such a striking composition. Well done.

Registered on July 27, 2009, 175 Posts, 1100 Comments

Comment posted by KC Choo on January 31, 2011 at 12:25 PM

Beautifully done, Monica! Love your composition....well done!

Registered on November 15, 2004, 519 Posts, 8278 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on January 31, 2011 at 12:49 PM

I like this photo a lot as well. Wonderful setting, background and bird with a nice pose. I might consider cloning the tip of the branch on the right side so it doesn't exit the frame, or reconsider the crop.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on January 31, 2011 at 3:10 PM

Everything comes together on this, perch, pose, look and background, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by David Williams on January 31, 2011 at 5:53 PM

Very well done for your first Kestrel, Monica. Composition and bg go really well with the subdued colors of the bird.

Registered on March 8, 2005, 315 Posts, 2291 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on January 31, 2011 at 8:28 PM

Monica,

The Kestrel is a beautiful bird and you caught it in an excellent pose with a great head turn. Love the background colors and the view of how the bird is gripping the perch. The larger version does show some loss of detail from the larger crop and I might consider a little NR on the background.

Big congrats on your first kestrel shot!

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on January 31, 2011 at 8:41 PM

Nice job on your first Kestrel shot Monica, artfully composed. Think the BG here makes come together for ya.
Relatively small birds. Could never get close enough with the ones here..
Hard to believe it's at 12%, looks great

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on January 31, 2011 at 8:42 PM

This shot turned out really well, Monica. Especially considering that the bird did not stay around for long (so you couldn't experiment with different settings) and the image represents only about 1.2 MP. If you consider the size of the bird image within the frame you can see that the number of bird pixels must be pretty small. Even at that, to me detail seems to quite adequately fit this composition and a little more NR would be easy to do. It's a beautiful image and a lovely comp.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Canuel on January 31, 2011 at 11:35 PM

Beautiful bird and he picked a nice place on that perch for you. The pose is nice as is the BG. Congrats on the photo.

Registered on September 12, 2010, 53 Posts, 660 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on February 1, 2011 at 2:19 AM

Great pose and perch!
The large version is a little soft, and could use a round of NR on the BG.
Still, a very nice image of a beautiful bird.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on February 1, 2011 at 5:31 AM

This is stunning Monica - particularly for such a large crop. Love the comp. I'd be tempted to add a bit of NR to the background.

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on February 1, 2011 at 7:56 AM

lovely light and comp, Monica. I agree that it suffers from the crop, but a very nice look at this beautiful bird.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on February 1, 2011 at 9:30 AM

This looks great, especially so for just 12% of the image, congrats Monica

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Andy Shepherd on February 1, 2011 at 3:31 PM

Beautifully sharp, and your composition is excellent. Super work, Monica.

Andy...

Registered on September 24, 2006, 123 Posts, 1254 Comments

Comment posted by Geoffrey Baker on February 1, 2011 at 6:06 PM

A beautiful image

Well captured.

Geoff.

Registered on August 20, 2010, 192 Posts, 980 Comments

Comment posted by Albert Darmo on February 1, 2011 at 10:18 PM

Hi monica

A marvelous capture, with great detail , B.G. and light.

Albert Darmo. Canada

Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on February 2, 2011 at 2:13 AM

A beauty Monica

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments